Sheriff Deputies Scared Off Intruder, Says Local Business Owner

A local business owner, Marie Mills of The Hemp Connection, says she is grateful for Measure Z money which is supporting more sheriff’s deputies in Southern Humboldt. Early Sunday morning her daughter received a call from the alarm company that the store’s alarm was sounding. Because Mills’ daughter wasn’t able to get to the store right away, she made sure the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department was alerted.

“When she got there, two sheriff’s [deputies] were there,” explained Mills. “The two sheriff’s [deputies] were there with five minutes and waited an hour.” Mills credits the deputies with scaring off the intruder.

“Someone had kicked in a locked door that faces the parking lot,” Mills said. Three bongs had been disturbed. “Those were found broken in various places…They didn’t really get anything,” she said.

However, earlier in the week, the business suffered from vandalism. “[S]omeone was walking down our block and broke the front door.” Mills said that incidents like that are expensive and hard on small stores.

Selena Zorilla-Mendoza, a spokesperson from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department, said that businesses in Southern Humboldt should be seeing evidence of surveillance checks by deputies. Now that Measure Z has allowed the department to hire more staff, the department, she said, is doing “patrol checks when businesses are closed.” The deputies check to make sure the doors are locked and there are no signs of forced entry. Then the deputies fill out a card indicating they’ve stopped by the business and then leave the card for the owner. Deputies showing up at businesses will hopefully keep crimes from occurring, she said.

8 comments

Seems like most of the news I read is someone or some business getting robbed, burglarized or home invaded for their pot. Key word her is POT. With all of the homeless pot smoking losers here looking to steal instead of getting a JOB, this is never going to stop. Ever. Humboldt County is becoming a toilet.

And the fact that this is a BONG shop, I just shake my head. You sell pot smoking supplies, expect trouble. Look what happened to the bong shop in Willow Creek last year. It was burned to the ground by a burglar stealing from them.

Your logic is ridiculous and your statement untrue. The majority of breakins are at gas stations up north & they dont sell pot.

The hemp connection is one of at least 3 stores in town that carry smoking items. The hemp connection is NOT a head shop, it’s a clothing and other hemp product store that has a few bongs. Thats how I think of it at least. I go there to get hemp string and notebooks.
Not only that but this is a long time garberville biz with some sweet cool ladies running it who are involved in their community.

To say all crime is pot related is just not true, meth and heroin make up way more of the drug violence. Most of the pot smokers on the street you refer to are on a whole lot more than pot. Maybe u should talk to some local cops.
And read some news headlines from around the state and in places with towns of our size. You’l see how good we’re doing.

But if you think its a pit here then please feel free to move along somewhere far away and let us know if its any better there.

Wherever you work, the pot industry is supporting your paycheck. Like it or not. Any industry has greedy bastards and pot def has its own versions who are awful.
If you dont like having small biz everywhere, volunteer fire depts functioning in a majority of watersheds, alternative learning situations for kids, community centers, local non-corporate radio stations, low foreclosure rates on homes, festivals of many sizes and genres, music programs in the schools (which now operate thru by fundraisers), the most entrepreneurs&artists&beverage producers per capita in the state, & the closest to a true trickle down economics then please go find somewhere better.

I shake my head why people say they hate it here yet stay.
Its not perfect& everyday I wish it was more like it used to be.
But this is whats happening now, &I think its an opportunity to reclaim and create our future.
Lets fight to keep our humboldt OUR humboldt. Meaning keep the spirit alive and flourishing 🙂

So sorry for Marie and Theresa. Great store with hemp clothing, local t-shirts, hats, books, etc. Glad no one was hurt. Happy to hear police responded quickly and are doing patrol checks, that really seems to help.

Regarding the store that was burned down in Willow Creek last year, I never saw bongs or rolling papers in it. All I saw was organic food, both fresh and packaged. Juices, homesteading supplies, local crafts and met some very fine folks who worked there. Please correct me if I am wrong? I saw a small locally owned business devastated by the loss of their business. And many folks who would prefer to shop locally have to go to the coast or online to make their needed purchases. And local farmers denied an access to their goods.

Regardless of whether or not the shop in the article carried hemp related products or smoking products, a thief, a thug attempted to burglarized them. That is not normal behavior of good citizens.